A trip to Burnley - or a drop of claret

I was awake this morning at 6 a.m. but then dozed off until about 8.30 a.m.  I left Tom to sleep on (until 10 a.m.) whilst Sara was doing his paper round for him back in Winterslow.  Malcolm and I visited the Lancashire Farmers' Market on Aigburth Road where we tried some interesting sausages and bought some excellent Lancashire Tasty Cheese which I will really enjoy eating when I get back to Wiltshire tomorrow evening.  Tom and I set off for Burnley at  around 11.30 a.m. arriving in that Lancashire mill town at about 1 p.m.  The journey up was very easy with relatively clear motorways the whole way up.  We managed to get parked in a side street only about three minutes walk away from Turf Moor Football Ground.  There were already quite a large number of football supporters milling around including many from Southampton.  A short walk into town found us a very pleasant fish restaurant and despite warnings about unfriendliness from Malcolm and others, we found the people very friendly indeed.  It is clear, however, that football is a very important part of the lives of the population up here.  We got into the ground in good time for the match and sat in the David Fishwick Stand on very old wooden seats which must have been there in the days that I used to visit Turf Moor to follow Burnley.  The game was fast and furious and Burnley played extremely well - especially in the first half.  Saints' passing was poor and they lost possession many times.  There seemed to be more attempts on the Southampton goal than the other way round. At half-time the score remained 0-0.  Early into the second half, despite an improved performance from Southampton, Burnley scored.  It was to be only until ten minutes before the end that Schneiderlin scored the equaliser for Saints.  Saints had other opportunities to score but could never quite convert.  The final result being 1-1.  At Preston, where Malcolm had gone, the score was Preston 2 - 0 Tranmere Rovers.  Middlesbrough could only managed a goalless draw at home to Ipswich so tonight Southampton remain on top by a single point.  The traffic was heavy getting out of Burnley and we returned to Liverpool via Bury, Manchester and M62.  This evening we met up again with Geoff and Alma and had a really lovely evening at the Red Fort Indian restaurant in Lark Lane.  always such great company and the evening zoomed by.  Went to bed about 12.30 a.m.